LaRue Tactical PredatAR in 5.56, 16" or 18" is the rifle you seek. They indicate the rifle will do 1 MOA but I've seen test targets indicating .5-.7 MOA right out of the box.

I haven't seen a Spikes rifle shoot that bad unless an optic wasn't used.

Spike's themselves told me that 2-3" is a normal 100yd group for their chromed bbl's.

Iron sights ?

Nope. 4-16x44.

Wow ! I wouldn't be happy and I would have gripped until they exchanged it. That's not the norm for the ones I have used and sold (uppers). Most are 1 to 1.5 MOA and Ive even seen two a little under .75 MOA. One had a 6-24 optic on it but still...

Most AR's are 1.5-2.5" at a hundred yards. And military/surplus ammo isn't going to give you match grade accuracy.

3 shot groups doesn't actually give any indication of how good a barrel is.

A 5 or 10 shot group does.

Frankly, 2 MOA is going to murder 2 and 4 legged varmits within 300 hards.

Doesn't it depend on the ammo too? I have heard most cheap ammo is only good for 2-3 MOA. Of course this is hearsay. I'm getting about 1.5-2 inch groups at 100 yards with my PSA SS 1/8 Wylde 16 inch. I'm told this is the best I can get with cheap soft point Monarch ammo. This is the reason I bought a reloading press. I want better groups.

Ammo is a big factor. I tried from BVAC to Black Hills & quite a few in between. Like said above, these weren't 3 shot groups either. I'm not a believer in 3 shot groups. I believe in 10 shot groups but the best 5 shot group I got was about 2". 10 shot was 3"+.

I daresay that most of the rifles within your budget will shoot the same, and if there's any difference, it will be negligible. If you're looking for true accuracy, go with a stainless barrel. If you're looking for barrel life, go with a chromelined barrel. Even the difference between those can be less than 1 MOA. To get the most out of your rifle, make sure that your ammo is appropriate for your barrel twist. This means that you probably shouldn't be shooting 75gr bullets out of a 1/9 barrel.

Again, I daresay that most of the rifles in your budget will shoot the same, and if there's any difference, it will be negligible. Lacking in reliability is really a thing of the past. If you get a name-brand bolt carrier group, you really shouldn't be worrying about reliability. They'll all last about the same amount of time, and since there seem to be substantial differences in individual bolt carriers (even from the same manufacturer), you can't really say that one is going to be better than another. For every BCM that's run for 10,000 rounds, there's one that failed after 1,000.

For what it's worth, Armalite's a good brand. Olympic Arms has a pretty bad reputation, but their barrels are supposed to be god-tier. BCM, Spike's, PSA (flavor of the month) is supposed to be good, Bushmaster, Daniel Defense, Colt (a 6920 can be had for $1,000 or less), S&W M&P are all brands that you should consider, and are in your price range.

I've found the new Windham Weaponry guns at Academy. They're built in Maine at the original Bushmaster plant. Bushmasters are now built in New York and are owned by Cerberus Capital(Freedom Group). Anyway, they look well made and are around $800 for the optics ready version. I noticed they offer a lifetime transferrable warranty too. I'd like to buy an AR this year as well and this one will warrant further research.

J.P. Enterprises.

Put a good scope on whatever you choose, buy something with a quality barrel, free float it, make sure the loads are good, and learn the gun. You will hear 100's of opinions on here, but you get what you pay for.

The Sig M400 has good reviews from guys on the THF.